Wireless Device Preferred Bandwidth Part Configuration and Duty Cycle Indication

ABSTRACT

This disclosure relates to techniques for a wireless device to indicate a preferred bandwidth part and duty cycle in a cellular communication system. A wireless device and a cellular base station may establish a radio resource control connection. The wireless device may transmit an indication of a preferred bandwidth part, or a preferred communication duty cycle, or both, to the cellular base station. The cellular base station may select a bandwidth part, or communication duty cycle, or both, based at least in part on the indication provided by the wireless device, and may transmit an indication of the selected bandwidth part, communication duty cycle, or both, to the wireless device. The cellular base station and the wireless device may perform cellular communication using the selected bandwidth part, communication duty cycle, or both.

PRIORITY INFORMATION

This application claims priority to U.S. provisional patent applicationSer. No. 62/641,505, entitled “Wireless Device Preferred Bandwidth Partand Duty Cycle Indication,” filed Mar. 12, 2018, which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety as though fully and completelyset forth herein.

FIELD

The present application relates to wireless communications, and moreparticularly to systems, apparatuses, and methods for indicatingpreferred bandwidth parts and communication duty cycles in a cellularcommunication system.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Wireless communication systems are rapidly growing in usage. In recentyears, wireless devices such as smart phones and tablet computers havebecome increasingly sophisticated. In addition to supporting telephonecalls, many mobile devices (i.e., user equipment devices or UEs) nowprovide access to the internet, email, text messaging, and navigationusing the global positioning system (GPS), and are capable of operatingsophisticated applications that utilize these functionalities.Additionally, there exist numerous different wireless communicationtechnologies and standards. Some examples of wireless communicationstandards include GSM, UMTS (associated with, for example, WCDMA orTD-SCDMA air interfaces), LTE, LTE Advanced (LTE-A), HSPA, 3GPP2CDMA2000 (e.g., 1×RTT, 1×EV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), IEEE 802.11 (WLAN orWi-Fi), BLUETOOTH′, etc.

The ever increasing number of features and functionality introduced inwireless communication devices also creates a continuous need forimprovement in both wireless communications and in wirelesscommunication devices. In particular, it is important to ensure theaccuracy of transmitted and received signals through user equipment (UE)devices, e.g., through wireless devices such as cellular phones, basestations and relay stations used in wireless cellular communications. Inaddition, increasing the functionality of a UE device can place asignificant strain on the battery life of the UE device. Thus it is veryimportant to also reduce power requirements in UE device designs whileallowing the UE device to maintain good transmit and receive abilitiesfor improved communications.

To increase coverage and better serve the increasing demand and range ofenvisioned uses of wireless communication, in addition to thecommunication standards mentioned above, there are further wirelesscommunication technologies under development, including fifth generation(5G) new radio (NR) communication. Accordingly, improvements in thefield in support of such development and design are desired.

SUMMARY

Some cellular technologies support the use of wideband cells, whosebandwidth can include multiple bandwidth parts, which may have similaror different bandwidths. A wireless device in that cell could beconfigured with multiple bandwidth parts, of which it may be the casethat only one is activated at any given time, per component carrier.

Given such an arrangement, it may be useful to provide a mechanism forthe wireless device to request a particular bandwidth part or indicate apreference among its configured bandwidth parts (or possibly among adifferent bandwidth part set), e.g., based on conditions at the wirelessdevice or based on conditions of the communication link, at any ofvarious times during communication. For example, a wireless device mighthave different preferences for the bandwidth part configuration of itsactive bandwidth part at different times, for any of a variety ofpossible reasons, potentially including but not limited to data typebeing communicated, thermal conditions at the wireless device, peakpower conditions at the wireless device, etc. Note that the parametersencompassed by the bandwidth configuration may include any of a varietyof parameters, as described in more detail subsequently herein.

Additionally or alternatively, similarly due to thermal and/or peakpower conditions at the wireless device and/or for any of various otherpossible reasons, it may be useful, at least in some instances, toprovide a mechanism for a wireless device to request a particularcommunication duty cycle or indicate preferred communication duty cycleinformation, at any of various times during communication. For example,if the wireless device is experiencing thermal and/or peak powerconditions such that transmitter and/or receiver duty cycling is beingimplemented by the wireless device regardless of the uplink and/ordownlink scheduling provided by its serving base station, it may be moreefficient to both the wireless device and the network for the network toalso be aware of such duty cycling constraints when scheduling thewireless device.

Accordingly, embodiments are presented herein of apparatuses, systems,and methods for indicating preferred bandwidth parts and communicationduty cycles in a cellular communication system. Such techniques may helpwireless devices balance power consumption with throughput and qualityof service considerations, as well as improve network resource useefficiency, at least according to some embodiments.

Note that the techniques described herein may be implemented in and/orused with a number of different types of devices, including but notlimited to base stations, access points, cellular phones, portable mediaplayers, tablet computers, wearable devices, and various other computingdevices.

This Summary is intended to provide a brief overview of some of thesubject matter described in this document. Accordingly, it will beappreciated that the above-described features are merely examples andshould not be construed to narrow the scope or spirit of the subjectmatter described herein in any way. Other features, aspects, andadvantages of the subject matter described herein will become apparentfrom the following Detailed Description, Figures, and Claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary (and simplified) wireless communicationsystem, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary base station in communication with anexemplary wireless user equipment (UE) device, according to someembodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a UE, according to someembodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a base station,according to some embodiments;

FIG. 5 illustrates aspects of an exemplary possible wideband cell havingmultiple possible bandwidth parts, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 6 is a communication flow diagram illustrating an exemplarypossible method for indicating preferred bandwidth parts andcommunication duty cycles in a cellular communication system, accordingto some embodiments; and

FIGS. 7-13 illustrate various further aspects of possible schemes thatcould be used for indicating preferred bandwidth parts and/or dutycycles in a cellular communication system, according to someembodiments.

While features described herein are susceptible to various modificationsand alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way ofexample in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should beunderstood, however, that the drawings and detailed description theretoare not intended to be limiting to the particular form disclosed, but onthe contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalentsand alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the subjectmatter as defined by the appended claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Acronyms

Various acronyms are used throughout the present disclosure. Definitionsof the most prominently used acronyms that may appear throughout thepresent dislosure are provided below:

-   -   UE: User Equipment    -   RF: Radio Frequency    -   BS: Base Station    -   GSM: Global System for Mobile Communication    -   UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunication System    -   LTE: Long Term Evolution    -   NR: New Radio    -   TX: Transmission/Transmit    -   RX: Reception/Receive    -   LAN: Local Area Network    -   WLAN: Wireless LAN    -   AP: Access Point    -   RAT: Radio Access Technology    -   IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers    -   Wi-Fi: Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) RAT based on the IEEE        802.11 standards

Terms

The following is a glossary of terms that may appear in the presentapplication:

Memory Medium—Any of various types of non-transitory memory devices orstorage devices. The term “memory medium” is intended to include aninstallation medium, e.g., a CD-ROM, floppy disks, or tape device; acomputer system memory or random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM,SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc.; a non-volatile memory such as a Flash,magnetic media, e.g., a hard drive, or optical storage; registers, orother similar types of memory elements, etc. The memory medium maycomprise other types of non-transitory memory as well or combinationsthereof. In addition, the memory medium may be located in a firstcomputer system in which the programs are executed, or may be located ina second different computer system which connects to the first computersystem over a network, such as the Internet. In the latter instance, thesecond computer system may provide program instructions to the firstcomputer system for execution. The term “memory medium” may include twoor more memory mediums which may reside in different locations, e.g., indifferent computer systems that are connected over a network. The memorymedium may store program instructions (e.g., embodied as computerprograms) that may be executed by one or more processors.

Carrier Medium—a memory medium as described above, as well as a physicaltransmission medium, such as a bus, network, and/or other physicaltransmission medium that conveys signals such as electrical,electromagnetic, or digital signals.

Computer System (or Computer)—any of various types of computing orprocessing systems, including a personal computer system (PC), mainframecomputer system, workstation, network appliance, Internet appliance,personal digital assistant (PDA), television system, grid computingsystem, or other device or combinations of devices. In general, the term“computer system” may be broadly defined to encompass any device (orcombination of devices) having at least one processor that executesinstructions from a memory medium.

User Equipment (UE) (or “UE Device”)—any of various types of computersystems or devices that are mobile or portable and that perform wirelesscommunications. Examples of UE devices include mobile telephones orsmart phones (e.g., iPhone™, Android™-based phones), tablet computers(e.g., iPad™, Samsung Galaxy™), portable gaming devices (e.g., NintendoDS™, PlayStation Portable™, Gameboy Advance™, iPhone™), wearable devices(e.g., smart watch, smart glasses), laptops, PDAs, portable Internetdevices, music players, data storage devices, or other handheld devices,etc. In general, the term “UE” or “UE device” can be broadly defined toencompass any electronic, computing, and/or telecommunications device(or combination of devices) which is easily transported by a user andcapable of wireless communication.

Wireless Device—any of various types of computer systems or devices thatperform wireless communications. A wireless device can be portable (ormobile) or may be stationary or fixed at a certain location. A UE is anexample of a wireless device.

Communication Device—any of various types of computer systems or devicesthat perform communications, where the communications can be wired orwireless. A communication device can be portable (or mobile) or may bestationary or fixed at a certain location. A wireless device is anexample of a communication device. A UE is another example of acommunication device.

Base Station (BS)—The term “Base Station” has the full breadth of itsordinary meaning, and at least includes a wireless communication stationinstalled at a fixed location and used to communicate as part of awireless telephone system or radio system.

Processing Element—refers to various elements or combinations ofelements that are capable of performing a function in a device, e.g. ina user equipment device or in a cellular network device. Processingelements may include, for example: processors and associated memory,portions or circuits of individual processor cores, entire processorcores, processor arrays, circuits such as an ASIC (Application SpecificIntegrated Circuit), programmable hardware elements such as a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA), as well any of various combinations ofthe above.

Wi-Fi—The term “Wi-Fi” has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning, andat least includes a wireless communication network or RAT that isserviced by wireless LAN (WLAN) access points and which providesconnectivity through these access points to the Internet. Most modernWi-Fi networks (or WLAN networks) are based on IEEE 802.11 standards andare marketed under the name “Wi-Fi”. A Wi-Fi (WLAN) network is differentfrom a cellular network.

Automatically—refers to an action or operation performed by a computersystem (e.g., software executed by the computer system) or device (e.g.,circuitry, programmable hardware elements, ASICs, etc.), without userinput directly specifying or performing the action or operation. Thusthe term “automatically” is in contrast to an operation being manuallyperformed or specified by the user, where the user provides input todirectly perform the operation. An automatic procedure may be initiatedby input provided by the user, but the subsequent actions that areperformed “automatically” are not specified by the user, i.e., are notperformed “manually”, where the user specifies each action to perform.For example, a user filling out an electronic form by selecting eachfield and providing input specifying information (e.g., by typinginformation, selecting check boxes, radio selections, etc.) is fillingout the form manually, even though the computer system must update theform in response to the user actions. The form may be automaticallyfilled out by the computer system where the computer system (e.g.,software executing on the computer system) analyzes the fields of theform and fills in the form without any user input specifying the answersto the fields. As indicated above, the user may invoke the automaticfilling of the form, but is not involved in the actual filling of theform (e.g., the user is not manually specifying answers to fields butrather they are being automatically completed). The presentspecification provides various examples of operations beingautomatically performed in response to actions the user has taken.

Configured to—Various components may be described as “configured to”perform a task or tasks. In such contexts, “configured to” is a broadrecitation generally meaning “having structure that” performs the taskor tasks during operation. As such, the component can be configured toperform the task even when the component is not currently performingthat task (e.g., a set of electrical conductors may be configured toelectrically connect a module to another module, even when the twomodules are not connected). In some contexts, “configured to” may be abroad recitation of structure generally meaning “having circuitry that”performs the task or tasks during operation. As such, the component canbe configured to perform the task even when the component is notcurrently on. In general, the circuitry that forms the structurecorresponding to “configured to” may include hardware circuits.

Various components may be described as performing a task or tasks, forconvenience in the description. Such descriptions should be interpretedas including the phrase “configured to.” Reciting a component that isconfigured to perform one or more tasks is expressly intended not toinvoke 35 U.S.C. § 112, paragraph six, interpretation for thatcomponent.

FIGS. 1 and 2—Exemplary Communication System

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary (and simplified) wireless communicationsystem in which aspects of this disclosure may be implemented, accordingto some embodiments. It is noted that the system of FIG. 1 is merely oneexample of a possible system, and embodiments may be implemented in anyof various systems, as desired.

As shown, the exemplary wireless communication system includes a basestation 102 which communicates over a transmission medium with one ormore (e.g., an arbitrary number of) user devices 106A, 106B, etc.through 106N. Each of the user devices may be referred to herein as a“user equipment” (UE) or UE device. Thus, the user devices 106 arereferred to as UEs or UE devices.

The base station 102 may be a base transceiver station (BTS) or cellsite, and may include hardware and/or software that enables wirelesscommunication with the UEs 106A through 106N. If the base station 102 isimplemented in the context of LTE, it may alternately be referred to asan ‘eNodeB’ or ‘eNB’. If the base station 102 is implemented in thecontext of 5G NR, it may alternately be referred to as a ‘gNodeB’ or‘gNB’. The base station 102 may also be equipped to communicate with anetwork 100 (e.g., a core network of a cellular service provider, atelecommunication network such as a public switched telephone network(PSTN), and/or the Internet, among various possibilities). Thus, thebase station 102 may facilitate communication among the user devicesand/or between the user devices and the network 100. The communicationarea (or coverage area) of the base station may be referred to as a“cell.” As also used herein, from the perspective of UEs, a base stationmay sometimes be considered as representing the network insofar asuplink and downlink communications of the UE are concerned. Thus, a UEcommunicating with one or more base stations in the network may also beinterpreted as the UE communicating with the network.

The base station 102 and the user devices may be configured tocommunicate over the transmission medium using any of various radioaccess technologies (RATs), also referred to as wireless communicationtechnologies, or telecommunication standards, such as GSM, UMTS (WCDMA),LTE, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), LAA/LTE-U, 5G NR, 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g.,1×RTT, 1×EV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), Wi-Fi, WiMAX etc.

Base station 102 and other similar base stations operating according tothe same or a different cellular communication standard may thus beprovided as one or more networks of cells, which may provide continuousor nearly continuous overlapping service to UE 106 and similar devicesover a geographic area via one or more cellular communication standards.

Note that a UE 106 may be capable of communicating using multiplewireless communication standards. For example, a UE 106 might beconfigured to communicate using either or both of a 3GPP cellularcommunication standard or a 3GPP2 cellular communication standard. Insome embodiments, the UE 106 may be configured to implement techniquesfor indicating preferred bandwidth parts and communication duty cyclesin a cellular communication system, at least according to the variousmethods as described herein. The UE 106 might also or alternatively beconfigured to communicate using WLAN, BLUETOOTH™, one or more globalnavigational satellite systems (GNSS, e.g., GPS or GLONASS), one and/ormore mobile television broadcasting standards (e.g., ATSC-M/H or DVB-H),etc. Other combinations of wireless communication standards (includingmore than two wireless communication standards) are also possible.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary user equipment 106 (e.g., one of thedevices 106A through 106N) in communication with the base station 102,according to some embodiments. The UE 106 may be a device with wirelessnetwork connectivity such as a mobile phone, a handheld device, awearable device, a computer or a tablet, or virtually any type ofwireless device. The UE 106 may include a processor that is configuredto execute program instructions stored in memory. The UE 106 may performany of the method embodiments described herein by executing such storedinstructions. Alternatively, or in addition, the UE 106 may include aprogrammable hardware element such as an FPGA (field-programmable gatearray) that is configured to perform any of the method embodimentsdescribed herein, or any portion of any of the method embodimentsdescribed herein. The UE 106 may be configured to communicate using anyof multiple wireless communication protocols. For example, the UE 106may be configured to communicate using two or more of CDMA2000, LTE,LTE-A, 5G NR, WLAN, or GNSS. Other combinations of wirelesscommunication standards are also possible.

The UE 106 may include one or more antennas for communicating using oneor more wireless communication protocols according to one or more RATstandards. In some embodiments, the UE 106 may share one or more partsof a receive chain and/or transmit chain between multiple wirelesscommunication standards. The shared radio may include a single antenna,or may include multiple antennas (e.g., for MIMO) for performingwireless communications. In general, a radio may include any combinationof a baseband processor, analog RF signal processing circuitry (e.g.,including filters, mixers, oscillators, amplifiers, etc.), or digitalprocessing circuitry (e.g., for digital modulation as well as otherdigital processing). Similarly, the radio may implement one or morereceive and transmit chains using the aforementioned hardware.

In some embodiments, the UE 106 may include separate transmit and/orreceive chains (e.g., including separate antennas and other radiocomponents) for each wireless communication protocol with which it isconfigured to communicate. As a further possibility, the UE 106 mayinclude one or more radios that are shared between multiple wirelesscommunication protocols, and one or more radios that are usedexclusively by a single wireless communication protocol. For example,the UE 106 may include a shared radio for communicating using either ofLTE or CDMA2000 1×RTT (or LTE or NR, or LTE or GSM), and separate radiosfor communicating using each of Wi-Fi and BLUETOOTH′. Otherconfigurations are also possible.

FIG. 3—Block Diagram of an Exemplary UE Device

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary UE 106, according tosome embodiments. As shown, the UE 106 may include a system on chip(SOC) 300, which may include portions for various purposes. For example,as shown, the SOC 300 may include processor(s) 302 which may executeprogram instructions for the UE 106 and display circuitry 304 which mayperform graphics processing and provide display signals to the display360. The processor(s) 302 may also be coupled to memory management unit(MMU) 340, which may be configured to receive addresses from theprocessor(s) 302 and translate those addresses to locations in memory(e.g., memory 306, read only memory (ROM) 350, NAND flash memory 310)and/or to other circuits or devices, such as the display circuitry 304,radio 330, connector I/F 320, and/or display 360. The MMU 340 may beconfigured to perform memory protection and page table translation orset up. In some embodiments, the MMU 340 may be included as a portion ofthe processor(s) 302.

As shown, the SOC 300 may be coupled to various other circuits of the UE106. For example, the UE 106 may include various types of memory (e.g.,including NAND flash 310), a connector interface 320 (e.g., for couplingto a computer system, dock, charging station, etc.), the display 360,and wireless communication circuitry 330 (e.g., for LTE, LTE-A, NR,CDMA2000, BLUETOOTH™, Wi-Fi, GPS, etc.). The UE device 106 may includeat least one antenna (e.g., 335 a), and possibly multiple antennas(e.g., illustrated by antennas 335 a and 335 b), for performing wirelesscommunication with base stations and/or other devices. Antennas 335 aand 335 b are shown by way of example, and UE device 106 may includefewer or more antennas. Overall, the one or more antennas arecollectively referred to as antenna 335. For example, the UE device 106may use antenna 335 to perform the wireless communication with the aidof radio circuitry 330. As noted above, the UE may be configured tocommunicate wirelessly using multiple wireless communication standardsin some embodiments.

As described further subsequently herein, the UE 106 (and/or basestation 102) may include hardware and software components forimplementing methods for at least UE 106 to indicate a preferredbandwidth part and preferred communication duty cycles in a cellularcommunication system. The processor(s) 302 of the UE device 106 may beconfigured to implement part or all of the methods described herein,e.g., by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g.,a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). In other embodiments,processor(s) 302 may be configured as a programmable hardware element,such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), or as an ASIC(Application Specific Integrated Circuit). Furthermore, processor(s) 302may be coupled to and/or may interoperate with other components as shownin FIG. 3, to implement such techniques in a cellular communicationsystem according to various embodiments disclosed herein. Processor(s)302 may also implement various other applications and/or end-userapplications running on UE 106.

In some embodiments, radio 330 may include separate controllersdedicated to controlling communications for various respective RATstandards. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, radio 330 may include aWi-Fi controller 332, a cellular controller (e.g. NR controller) 334,and BLUETOOTH′ controller 336, and in at least some embodiments, one ormore or all of these controllers may be implemented as respectiveintegrated circuits (ICs or chips, for short) in communication with eachother and with SOC 300 (and more specifically with processor(s) 302).For example, Wi-Fi controller 332 may communicate with cellularcontroller 334 over a cell-ISM link or WCI interface, and/or BLUETOOTH′controller 336 may communicate with cellular controller 334 over acell-ISM link, etc. While three separate controllers are illustratedwithin radio 330, other embodiments have fewer or more similarcontrollers for various different RATs that may be implemented in UEdevice 106.

FIG. 4—Block Diagram of an Exemplary Base Station

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary base station 102,according to some embodiments. It is noted that the base station of FIG.4 is merely one example of a possible base station. As shown, the basestation 102 may include processor(s) 404 which may execute programinstructions for the base station 102. The processor(s) 404 may also becoupled to memory management unit (MMU) 440, which may be configured toreceive addresses from the processor(s) 404 and translate thoseaddresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory 460 and read only memory(ROM) 450) or to other circuits or devices.

The base station 102 may include at least one network port 470. Thenetwork port 470 may be configured to couple to a telephone network andprovide a plurality of devices, such as UE devices 106, access to thetelephone network as described above in FIGS. 1 and 2. The network port470 (or an additional network port) may also or alternatively beconfigured to couple to a cellular network, e.g., a core network of acellular service provider. The core network may provide mobility relatedservices and/or other services to a plurality of devices, such as UEdevices 106. In some cases, the network port 470 may couple to atelephone network via the core network, and/or the core network mayprovide a telephone network (e.g., among other UE devices serviced bythe cellular service provider).

The base station 102 may include at least one antenna 434, and possiblymultiple antennas. The antenna(s) 434 may be configured to operate as awireless transceiver and may be further configured to communicate withUE devices 106 via radio 430. The antenna(s) 434 communicates with theradio 430 via communication chain 432. Communication chain 432 may be areceive chain, a transmit chain or both. The radio 430 may be designedto communicate via various wireless telecommunication standards,including, but not limited to, NR, LTE, LTE-A WCDMA, CDMA2000, etc. Theprocessor 404 of the base station 102 may be configured to implementand/or support implementation of part or all of the methods describedherein, e.g., by executing program instructions stored on a memorymedium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium).Alternatively, the processor 404 may be configured as a programmablehardware element, such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), or asan ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), or a combinationthereof. In the case of certain RATs, for example Wi-Fi, base station102 may be designed as an access point (AP), in which case network port470 may be implemented to provide access to a wide area network and/orlocal area network (s), e.g. it may include at least one Ethernet port,and radio 430 may be designed to communicate according to the Wi-Fistandard. The base station 102 may operate according to the variousmethods as disclosed herein for wireless devices to indicate preferredbandwidth parts and communication duty cycles in a cellularcommunication system.

FIGS. 5-6—Preferred Bandwidth Part and Duty Cycle Indications

At least in some cellular communication systems, wideband cells may beprovided by a cellular network. A wideband cell may include multiplebandwidth parts, e.g., such that it may be possible for a wirelessdevice to be configured to utilize just a portion of the total cellbandwidth at a given time. FIG. 5 illustrates a possible representationof such a wideband cell including multiple possible bandwidth parts,according to some embodiments. In the illustrated example, the wideband(WB) cell may include four bandwidth parts (BWPs), i.e., BWP#0, BWP#1,BWP#2, and BWP#3. In other scenarios, different configurations (e.g.,including a different number of BWPs, and/or any of various otherpossible differences) may also be possible for a WB (or other) cell. Atleast in some instances, different BWPs may include different amounts ofbandwidth.

In some systems (e.g., at least some 5G NR deployments), it may be thecase that a wireless device can only work on one BWP at a time (e.g.,per component carrier) for each of uplink and downlink, though multipleBWPs may be configured for a given wireless device. For example, awireless device may be configured to monitor a downlink control channeland perform data transmission/reception on an activated BWP, but may beconfigured to not monitor the downlink control channel or perform datatransmission/reception on inactive BWPs.

For example, according to 3GPP Release 15, it may be the case that amaximum of 4 BWPs for downlink and a maximum of 4 BWPs for uplink can beconfigured as a set, with a maximum of 1 downlink BWP and 1 uplink BWPbeing active at a time, for each of the component carriers (servingcells).

As another possibility, it may be the case that a wireless device canoperate on two active uplink BWPs at a time, in at least some instances,for example in the uplink if it is configured with a supplementaryuplink (SUL) carrier, such as described in 3GPP TS 38.331 version15.3.0, p. 156. Other configurations are also possible.

Any of a variety of techniques may be used for switching betweenactive/activated BWPs. Two possible examples may include explicit andimplicit activation techniques. When explicitly activating a BWP,signaling may explicitly be provided to a wireless device indicatingthat a certain BWP is being activated for the wireless device, forexample using downlink control information. Implicitly activating a BWPmay be based at least in part on a BWP inactivity timer. In such a case,a wireless device may be configured to have a default BWP, and may startthe BWP inactivity timer when switching to a non-default BWP. Upon timerexpiry, the wireless device may fallback to the default BWP, thusimplicitly activating the default BWP. At least in some instances, itmay be the case that the BWP inactivity timer can be restarted (e.g.,extending the duration for which the non-default BWP is activated) whena successfully decoded downlink control information communicationscheduling downlink data is received by the wireless device, and/orunder one or more other conditions.

Allowing a wireless device to work on a bandwidth smaller than theentire cell bandwidth using such techniques may be beneficial, at leastin some instances, for example with respect to wireless device powerconsumption, improving support for wireless devices that have lowerbandwidth capabilities, and/or for providing interference mitigationqualities, among various possibilities.

In some scenarios, it can be useful for a wireless device to indicate toits serving cellular base station (e.g., gNB) which BWP is preferred bythe wireless device. For example, based on wireless device knowledge ofdata size and application type (e.g., VoLTE call, messaging application,music streaming, large file transfer, etc.), the wireless device may beable to request a BWP or indicate a preferred BWP to the base station,e.g., either during an active connection with the base station or at thetime of a new connection setup with the base station. This may help thewireless device to balance power consumption with throughput and QoSrequirements by different application types.

Further, when a wireless device is operating in a thermal mode (e.g., tomitigate thermal/overheating conditions) or a peak power mode (e.g., toavoid operating at voltage levels that could cause a battery voltagebrownout or forced system shutdown), it may be helpful for the wirelessdevice to be able to request or indicate a preferred BWP with arelatively small bandwidth, e.g., in order to limit the battery currentdrain during a window of time during which the wireless device isoperating under peak-power or thermal constraints. For example, use ofsuch a smaller bandwidth may result in reduced power consumption by thebaseband modem processing unit of a wireless device, e.g., due todecreased processing load from a lower sampling rate for the smallerbandwidth.

Further, when a wireless device is operating under peak-power and/orthermal constraints, it may be important to utilize additionaltechniques to limit the battery current drain. For example, a wirelessdevice may duty-cycle its transmitter and/or receiver circuitries (amongother mechanisms, such as limiting transmit power). Implementing anuplink or downlink maximum duty cycle, respectively, may includelimiting the proportion of time for which a wireless device operates itstransmitter or receiver circuitry, respectively, in a powered on state,to at most a configured maximum. To achieve this, a wireless device maypower off the transmitter and/or receiver circuitry (e.g., as applicablein view of the duty cycling configuration) for a sufficient duration oftime (which may be referred to as a blanking period, in some instances)out of a certain time period (which may be referred to as a duty cycleperiod) such that the proportion of time that the transmitter and/orreceiver circuitry is powered on over the duty cycle period is less thanthe configured maximum. Such techniques may reduce the power consumptionof a wireless device over a period of time, which may allow for peakpower and/or thermal conditions to subside. If the wireless device doesnot implement peak-power or thermal mitigations at appropriate times, itmay be the case that unexpected system behavior can occur, such as abattery voltage brownout or a forced system shutdown, e.g., to protectdevice components from damage.

It may be advantageous, at least in some instances, for both a wirelessdevice implementing such duty-cycling and for its serving cell to beaware of the duty cycle requirements and blanking periods (e.g., periodsin which the wireless device may turn off its transmitter and/orreceiver circuitries) used by the wireless device to reduce its batterycurrent drain. For example, network resources (such as downlink oruplink grants) that are provided but not used by a wireless device dueto duty cycling would be wasted, and new resources would need to beassigned to the wireless device for retransmissions to recover theinformation lost or not transmitted during blanking periods. From thedevice perspective, the wireless device may still have to transmit (orretransmit) data and control information for any missed transmissionsduring a blanking period, and would also need to process retransmissionsfrom the network for information that was sent during the wirelessdevice receiver blanking periods.

In some instances, peak-power and thermal constraints may be more commonfor some wireless communication technologies than others. For example,as new and potentially increasingly complex wireless communicationtechnologies and techniques are developed, there may be potential forincreased baseband modem processor, RF front-end, and/or othercomponents to require more battery current draw to implement thosewireless communication technologies and techniques. As one suchpossibility, 5G NR communication in millimeter wave communication bandsmay be considered relatively computationally and/or otherwise complex,e.g., relative to LTE communication in lower frequency bands.

Accordingly, it may be useful to support capabilities for a wirelessdevice to request or indicate its preference for a maximum communicationduty cycle for either or both of downlink and uplink. The serving basestation for the wireless device may then be able to adjust itsscheduling for the wireless device in accordance with the indicatedpreferred duty cycle, potentially such that there are scheduling gapsallowing the wireless device a time period where it can shut down itstransmitter circuit and/or its receiver circuit without missingscheduled communications with the cellular base station. For example, anetwork may be able to translate a wireless device's requested downlinkduty cycle to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoringperiodicity, or Slot Format Indicator (SFI). As another possibility, awireless device could indicate or request a specific PDCCH monitoringperiodicity/pattern that would result in (e.g., that maps to) itspreferred duty cycle configuration.

Note also that as part of such capabilities, it may also be supportedthat a wireless device can indicate a time-period over which the dutycycle is to be calculated. For example, peak power constraints may insome instances have a shorter time constant compared to thermalconstraints, such that for peak power mitigation, it may be important toachieve a given duty cycle over a shorter time scale than for thermalmitigation.

Accordingly, FIG. 6 is a flowchart diagram illustrating a method for awireless device (e.g., a wireless user equipment (UE) device) toindicate a preferred bandwidth part and/or preferred communication dutycycles in a cellular communication system.

Aspects of the method of FIG. 6 may be implemented by a wireless device,e.g., in conjunction with a cellular base station, such as a UE 106 anda BS 102 illustrated in and described with respect to various of theFigures herein, or more generally in conjunction with any of thecomputer systems or devices shown in the above Figures, among otherdevices, as desired. Note that while at least some elements of themethod of FIG. 6 are described in a manner relating to the use ofcommunication techniques and/or features associated with NR and/or 3GPPspecification documents, such description is not intended to be limitingto the disclosure, and aspects of the method of FIG. 6 may be used inany suitable wireless communication system, as desired. In variousembodiments, some of the elements of the methods shown may be performedconcurrently, in a different order than shown, may be substituted for byother method elements, or may be omitted. Additional method elements mayalso be performed as desired. As shown, the method of FIG. 6 may operateas follows.

In 602, the wireless device and the cellular base station may establisha wireless link. According to some embodiments, the wireless link mayinclude a cellular link according to 5G NR. For example, the wirelessdevice may establish a session with an AMF entity of the cellularnetwork by way of a gNB that provides radio access to the cellularnetwork. Note that the cellular network may also or alternativelyoperate according to another cellular communication technology (e.g.,LTE, UMTS, CDMA2000, GSM, etc.), according to various embodiments.

Establishing the wireless link may include establishing a RRC connectionwith a serving cellular base station, at least according to someembodiments. Establishing the RRC connection may include configuringvarious parameters for communication between the wireless device and thecellular base station, establishing context information for the wirelessdevice, and/or any of various other possible features, e.g., relating toestablishing an air interface for the wireless device to performcellular communication with a cellular network associated with thecellular base station. After establishing the RRC connection, thewireless device may operate in a RRC connected state.

According to some embodiments, during RRC connection establishment, thecellular base station may provide an indication of a set of possiblecommunication duty cycle values, and potentially also a set of possiblecommunication duty cycle period values, that can be used by the cellularbase station when communicating with the wireless device. Alternatively,such information could be provided in broadcast system information, ormay not be provided by the cellular base station. For example, it may bethe case that possible communication duty cycle values and/or possiblecommunication duty cycle period values are pre-agreed between thewireless device and the cellular base station, e.g., based onproprietary agreements and/or because such values are specified incellular communication standards documents for a cellular communicationtechnology according to which the wireless device and the cellular basestation are communicating.

In 604, the wireless device may transmit a request for a specificbandwidth part configuration/an indication of a preferred bandwidth partconfiguration and/or a preferred communication duty cycle, and possiblyalso a preferred communication duty cycle period, for the RRC connectionto the base station, which may receive the indication.

Note that the bandwidth part configuration could encompass any of avariety of possible parameters, potentially including but not limited tobandwidth (e.g., potentially including a set of preferred bandwidthsizes), BWP location (e.g., potentially including a set of startingand/or ending resource block (RB) indices), BWP inactivity timer length,subcarrier spacing, physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH)configuration (e.g., in the case of a DL BWP) and its associatedparameters (e.g., maxNrofCodeWordsScheduldedByDCI, maximum number ofMIMO layers, etc.), physical downlink control channel (PDCCH)configuration (e.g., again in the case of a DL BWP) and its associatedparameters (e.g., searchSpacesToAddModList, search space periodicity,etc.), physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) configuration (e.g., inthe case of an UL BWP) and its associated parameters, physical uplinkshared channel (PUSCH) configuration (e.g., again in the case of an ULBWP) and its associated parameters, etc.

Note also that if a preferred communication duty cycle period isindicated, it may be indicated in conjunction with an indication of apreferred duty cycle, at least according to some embodiments. At leastin some instances, it may be possible for an indication of a preferredduty cycle to be provided by the wireless device without also providingan indication of a preferred communication duty cycle period.

Note that one or more of the preferred bandwidth part configuration,communication duty cycle, and/or communication duty cycle period may beselected by the wireless device from possible values for such parametersspecified by the cellular base station during RRC configuration, or aspart of broadcast system information, or as specified by cellularcommunication standards documents, among various possibilities.Alternatively, one or more of the preferred bandwidth part,communication duty cycle, and/or communication duty cycle period may beselected by the wireless device without constraints to the set ofpossible parameter values that can be indicated.

The base station may select a bandwidth part configuration and/or acommunication duty cycle, and possibly also a communication duty cycleperiod, for the RRC connection based at least in part on therequest/indication received from the wireless device. As previouslynoted, the bandwidth part configuration may include any of a variety ofpossible parameters, potentially including bandwidth, BWP location,subcarrier spacing, various channel configuration parameters for theBWP, etc.

It should be noted that if a communication duty cycle period is selectedby the base station for the RRC connection, it may be selected inconjunction with a communication duty cycle value. Alternatively, a(e.g., default) communication duty cycle period for any duty cyclingconfigurations may be predetermined (e.g., specified in standardspecification documents, or otherwise pre-agreed upon/known a priori byboth the wireless device and the base station), in some instances, suchthat the wireless device may not have provided an indication of apreferred communication duty cycle period and the base station may thusselect the communication duty cycle period for the wireless device in amanner that is not based on any such indication. As previously noted, insome instances selecting the communication duty cycle may includeselecting a PDCCH monitoring periodicity that would achieve the selectedcommunication duty cycle.

In 606, the base station may transmit an indication of the selectedbandwidth part configuration and/or communication duty cycle, andpossibly a communication duty cycle period, to the wireless device,which may receive the indication. The base station and the wirelessdevice may perform cellular communication using the bandwidth partconfiguration, communication duty cycle, and/or communication duty cycleperiod selected and indicated by the base station. As previously noted,at least in some instances, it may be the case that a communication dutycycle period is indicated by the cellular base station only inconjunction with an indication of a communication duty cycle (e.g., itmay be the case that a communication duty cycle period is not meaningfulif not used in conjunction with a duty cycle). However, it should alsobe noted that an indication of a communication duty cycle could beprovided without also providing an indication of a communication dutycycle period, at least in some instances. For example, a defaultcommunication duty cycle period could be used if no communication dutycycle period is specifically signaled, or an indication of acommunication duty cycle period to be used by the wireless device whenduty cycling could be provided by the base station at a different time,such as in broadcast cell system information, or during a differentportion of RRC connection configuration, among various possibilities.

Note that an indication of a preferred communication duty cycle and apreferred communication duty cycle period may be provided by thewireless device for either or both of uplink and downlink communication.The indicated preferred communication duty cycle and communication dutycycle period for uplink and downlink can be the same or different, e.g.,in various scenarios. Similarly, the cellular base station may indicatea selected communication duty cycle and a selected communication dutycycle period for either or both of uplink and downlink communication,e.g., in response to the indication(s) by the wireless device.

In some instances, an indication of a preferred bandwidth partconfiguration, a preferred communication duty cycle, and/or a preferredcommunication duty cycle period may be provided by the wireless devicefor any or all active component carriers configured for the wirelessdevice by the cellular base station. In such a scenario, the cellularbase station may indicate selected communication duty cycle (andpossibly communication duty cycle period) information on a per componentcarrier basis, e.g., in response to the indication(s) by the wirelessdevice.

In some instances, the wireless device may provide an indication of apreferred minimum time period for a contiguous gap with no downlink oruplink scheduling during each communication duty cycle period. Thecellular base station may consider such an indication when schedulinguplink and downlink communications for the wireless device, e.g., suchas to attempt to provide the requested minimum time period for acontiguous gap with no downlink or uplink scheduling for the wirelessdevice in each communication duty cycle period (e.g., while potentiallyalso considering other scheduling constraints).

In some instances, the preferred bandwidth part configuration, thepreferred communication duty cycle, and/or the preferred communicationduty cycle period may be selected by the wireless device based at leastin part on detecting that a thermal condition and/or a peak powercondition is occurring at the wireless device. For example, the wirelessdevice may determine that a thermal condition and/or a peak powercondition is occurring at the wireless device, may determine values forthe preferred bandwidth part configuration, the preferred communicationduty cycle, and/or the preferred communication duty cycle period thatmay help mitigate the condition(s) being experienced by the wirelessdevice, and may accordingly provide the indication of the preferredbandwidth part configuration, the preferred communication duty cycle,and/or the preferred communication duty cycle period to the cellularbase station.

In such a case, if the wireless device determines (e.g., at a latertime) that the thermal condition and/or peak power condition is nolonger occurring at the wireless device, the wireless device may providean indication of an updated preferred bandwidth part configuration, anupdated preferred communication duty cycle, and/or an updated preferredcommunication duty cycle period to the cellular base station (e.g.,based at least in part on determining that the thermal condition or peakpower condition is no longer occurring at the wireless device). Forexample, the wireless device may request to resume use of a defaultbandwidth part, communication duty cycle, and/or communication dutycycle period, once a detected thermal condition or peak power conditionis no longer occurring at the wireless device. Alternatively, thewireless device may indicate that the wireless device no longer has apreferred bandwidth part, communication duty cycle, and/or communicationduty cycle period, once a detected thermal condition or peak powercondition is no longer occurring at the wireless device. Such atechnique may be used, for example, if bandwidth part and/or duty cycleconfigurations are considered valid indefinitely (e.g., untilrenegotiated or the RRC connection is released), according to someembodiments.

Alternatively (or in addition), the wireless device may determine torequest a different bandwidth part configuration, communication dutycycle and/or communication duty cycle period at any of various timesduring communication with the cellular base station and for any of avariety of reasons. The cellular base station may select a new bandwidthpart configuration, communication duty cycle, and/or communication dutycycle period, in response to the indication of the updated preferredbandwidth part, updated preferred communication duty cycle, and/orupdated preferred communication duty cycle period, and may provideconfiguration information indicating such information to the wirelessdevice.

Alternatively (or in addition), in some instances, the selectedbandwidth part configuration, communication duty cycle, and/orcommunication duty cycle period may be configured to expire afterexpiration of a timer associated with the selected bandwidth partconfiguration, communication duty cycle, and/or communication duty cycleperiod. Such a timer could also be restarted or otherwise extended inresponse to certain triggers (e.g., certain data communication events,an indication from the wireless device to continue using the selectedbandwidth part, communication duty cycle, and/or communication dutycycle period, etc.), if desired. After expiration of the timerassociated with the selected bandwidth part configuration, communicationduty cycle, and/or communication duty cycle period, the wireless deviceand the cellular base station may communicate using a default bandwidthpart configuration, communication duty cycle, and/or communication dutycycle period for the RRC connection.

FIGS. 7-13—Further Preferred Bandwidth Part Configuration and DutyCycles Indications Information

FIGS. 7-13 illustrate various aspects of possible schemes that could beused for indicating preferred bandwidth parts and/or duty cycles in acellular communication system, according to some embodiments. Note thatFIGS. 7-13 and the following information are provided as beingillustrative of further considerations and possible implementationdetails relating to the method of FIG. 6, and are not intended to belimiting to the disclosure as a whole. Numerous variations andalternatives to the details provided herein below are possible andshould be considered within the scope of the disclosure.

At least in some instances, it may be possible for downlink and uplinkduty cycles to be configured separately. For example, it may be possibleto define the downlink duty cycle as the ratio of the duration duringwhich a wireless device receiver is powered on (which may be referred toas “T_(RX_ON)”) (to receive control signaling and/or data) to the dutycycle calculation period (which may be referred to as“T_(DL_duty_cycle_period)”):

DL_duty_cycle %=100*(T _(RX_ON) /T _(DL_duty_cycle_period))

Similarly, it may be possible to define the uplink duty cycle as theratio of the duration during which a wireless device transmitter ispowered on (which may be referred to as “T_(TX_ON)”) (to transmitcontrol signaling and/or data) to the duty cycle calculation period(which may be referred to as “T_(UL_duty_cycle_period)”):

UL_duty_cycle %=100*(T _(TX_ON) /T _(UL_duty_cycle_period))

The duty cycle period (DL or UL) can be in units of slot (e.g.,T_(duty_cycle_period)=1 ms for subcarrier spacing of 15 KHz, as onepossibility) or multiple slots (e.g., T_(duty_cycle_period)=5 ms forsubcarrier spacing of 15 KHz, as one possibility), potentially evenincluding fractional numbers of slots (e.g., 2 slots and 2 OFDM symbols,etc.).

Note that, from the perspective of the wireless device, it may be moreeffective at reducing battery drain over the duty cycle period if theopportunities for the wireless device to turn off its receiver ortransmitter circuits are relatively more contiguous in time. Forexample, there may be timing overhead associated with turningtransmitter and receiver circuitries off and back on again. For example,consider the possible receiver use patterns illustrated in FIG. 7. Inthe upper illustrated receiver use pattern 710, there may be a single RXOFF operating window between two RX ON operating windows, while in thelower illustrated receiver use pattern 720, there may be a multiple RXOFF and RX ON operating windows. Since each RX ON window may requiresome ramp up and/or ramp down to power components on then eventually offagain, there may be more reduction in battery current drain in the caseof the upper illustrated receiver use pattern 710 than for the lowerillustrated receiver use pattern 720 for the same duty cycle.

Note additionally that (at least when using frequency division duplexingor FDD communication techniques), it may be more beneficial to thewireless device to align the opportunities for both the transmitter andreceiver to be turned off such that they overlap in time than if theyare staggered in time, as this may allow the wireless device to enterfurther reduced battery drain modes (e.g., potentially includingbaseband processor sleep). For example, consider the possible RX and TXuse patterns illustrated in FIG. 8. In the upper illustrated use pattern810, the RX OFF and TX OFF operating windows may be substantiallyoverlapping, such that it may be possible for the baseband processor toeffectively sleep for at least a portion of that time. In the lowerillustrated use pattern 820, the RX OFF and TX OFF operating windows maybe substantially staggered, such that it may not be possible for thebaseband processor to effectively sleep (e.g., since there may not be asufficiently long window of time in which it is not used for either RXor TX. As a result, there may be more reduction in battery current drainin the case of the upper illustrated use pattern 810 than for the lowerillustrated use pattern 820 for the same UL and DL duty cycles.

There may be numerous possible ways for a wireless device and a cellularbase station to negotiate duty cycles and schedule communications inaccordance with a selected duty cycle. As one possibility, a cellularbase station may be able to choose to control the DL and UL duty cyclesdynamically through slot format indications (e.g., using slot formatsdefined in 3GPP TS 38.211, Table 4.3.2-3, as one possibility). Asanother possibility, UL-DL-Configuration-Common (andUL-DL-Configuration-Dedicated) signaling can be used, e.g., in which the“flexible” symbols (e.g., marked with “X”) are considered to be muted(unused) for a specific wireless device for which the base station isintending to control its DL and/or UL duty cycle.

For example, to achieve a DL duty cycle of a wireless device of up to20% over a 1 ms duration, a gNB operating according to 5G NR couldassign an intended UE a slot format as illustrated in FIG. 9 (e.g., withthe gNB interpreting symbols marked with “X” as muted (unused) insteadof being “flexible”, such that the gNB may not assign any DCI grants (orPDCCH) monitoring) in the slots marked as “X”.

If desired, any number of other formats can also or alternatively beused to control DL and UL duty cycles. Such formats may include otheralready defined formats and/or new formats defined using reservedentries of the previously referenced slot format table. For example, oneor more slot formats that explicitly indicate certain symbols as beingmuted could be defined. FIG. 10 illustrates such a possible slot formatthat may otherwise be comparable to the slot format illustrated in FIG.9.

Further, if a wireless device indicates a time period(T_(duty_cycle_period)) that is longer than a one slot duration, the gNBcould choose to concatenate different slots with the same or differentslot formats to achieve a requested duty-cycle over a longerT_(duty_cycle_period). Note that while doing so, the gNB may stillattempt to maximize the amount of time that transmitter and receivercircuitry can be contiguously powered off or otherwise operated in areduced power mode, and/or to align the opportunities for transmitterand receiver circuitry to be powered off with each other, as previouslydiscussed herein.

For longer values of T_(duty_cycle_period), or otherwise as desired, itmay also be possible to utilize UL-DL-Configuration signaling with mutedslots/symbols on a potentially longer timescale. For example, aUL-DL-Configuration-Common message (with UL-DL-Configuration-Dedicatedoverriding flexible periods to “muted” periods for a UE for which theuplink and/or downlink duty cycle is being controlled) may be used. FIG.11 illustrates a schedule that could be configured in such a way, e.g.,in which the T_(duty_cycle_period) is 10 ms, the DL duty cycle is 30%,and the UL duty cycle is 10%.

Thus, it may be possible for a wireless device to indicate a preferredBWP (or more generally a preferred BWP configuration) from a set ofconfigured BWPs (or BWP configurations), for the DL or UL or both, peractive component carrier (e.g., in case of carrier aggregation). Foreach active carrier, the wireless device may also be able to indicate amaximum downlink duty cycle, and a maximum uplink duty cycle (e.g., ifthe component carrier supports uplink transmissions). The duty cycleindication can be indicated by the wireless device as an index in aquantized set of duty cycle values (e.g., {0%, up to 20%, up to 40%, upto 60%, up to 100%}, as one possibility; any of various other sets arealso possible). This set can be pre-configured by the base station(e.g., by the gNB).

In addition to a duty cycle value, the wireless device may also indicateto the base station a duty cycle period (T_(duty_cycle_period)) overwhich the duty cycle is to be determined. This time period can bedifferent for the downlink and uplink, and can be different fordifferent component carriers (e.g., in the case of carrier aggregation).

The wireless device may also indicate to the base station a minimum timeperiod (“T_(no_scheduling)”) for a contiguous gap of no DL or ULscheduling, within the duty cycle period. Note that the smallest of theDL duty cycle period or the UL duty cycle period may be used for thispurpose, if the DL and UL duty cycle periods are different. Thismechanism may help allow the wireless device to obtain a long enough gapfor baseband processor sleep, which may in turn provide more and/orfaster reduction in battery current drain, and thus potentially fasteralleviation of peak-power and/or thermal constraints.

Such time periods (e.g., T_(duty_cycle_period) and/or T_(no_scheduling))can also be indicated as an index in a set of values that ispre-configured by the base station, in some instances. For example,T_(duty_cycle_period) could be chosen from a set of values {10 ms, 20ms, 50 ms, 100 ms, 200 ms, 500 ms, 1000 ms}, as one possibility; any ofvarious other sets are also possible. As another example,T_(no_scheduling) could be chosen from a set of values {2 ms, 5 ms, 10ms, 20 ms, 40 ms}, as one possibility; again, any number of other setsare also possible. Note that the values requested by a wireless deviceand selected by a base station for such parameters may be chosen incombination such as to be possible to obtain; for example, at least insome instances, a wireless device may generally avoid requesting a valueof T_(no_scheduling) that is larger than the value ofT_(duty_cycle_period) requested by the wireless device.

According to various embodiments, a wireless device may be able to sendits preferred BWP configuration and duty cycle configurationindication(s) to its serving base station through a media access control(MAC) control element (CE) (e.g., in conjunction with a random accesschannel (RACH) procedure to establish a RRC connection, as onepossibility), or through RRC signaling, among various possibilities.FIG. 12 illustrates a signaling flow between a UE and a gNB thatutilizes such a RRC signaling based approach.

As shown, in 1202, during RRC connection configuration/reconfiguration,the gNB may provide information indicating a BWP (or BWP configuration)set, duty cycle set, and duty cycle period set, among various possibleinformation, to the UE.

In 1204, the UE may provide an indication of its preferred BWP (or BWPconfiguration), duty cycle, and duty cycle period, for each of downlinkand uplink, to the gNB. The indication may be provided using aUEAssistanceInformation RRC message, a new RRC message, or any ofvarious other possible signaling options.

In 1206, the gNB may provide a RRCConnectionReconfiguration message,which may indicate updated BWP configuration and duty cycleconfiguration information, e.g., that may have been selected by the gNBbased on the UE's indication of its preferred BWP configuration, dutycycle, and duty cycle period.

When peak power and thermal constraints are both no longer applicable ata wireless device, the wireless device may indicate a default preferredduty cycle (e.g., up to 100%), and a default preferred BWP configuration(e.g., including the initial BWP assigned by the serving base station),to the serving base station, at least according to some embodiments.Alternatively, if desired, the wireless device may (e.g., at the time ofrequesting a preferred BWP configuration and/or duty cycleconfiguration) indicate to its serving base station a new timer toreflect the time duration for which the requested preferredconfiguration (BWP and duty cycle) is valid. Similar to previousparameters described herein, if desired, the timer value can be chosenas an index from a quantized set of values pre-configured by the basestation (e.g., {1s, 5s, 10s, 30s}, as one possibility; any of variousother sets are also possible). Alternatively, for any or all suchparameters, numerical values may be used to indicate the preferences ofthe wireless device.

As previously noted, in some instances, peak-power mitigation timelinesmay commonly differ from thermal mitigation timelines. For example,peak-power conditions may, at least in some instances, requiremitigation actions on a relatively short timeline, while mitigationactions over a relatively longer timeline may be acceptable for thermalconditions. Supporting the use of a T_(duty_cycle_period) parameter mayaccordingly enable mitigation actions to be taken on a more appropriatetimeline, e.g., depending on the type of condition in need ofmitigation, at least according to some embodiments.

For example, consider the two possible transmitter use patterns that areillustrated in FIG. 13. Both duty cycle configurations have the sameuplink duty cycle (40%), but the duty cycle periods differ between theconfigurations: in the upper illustrated transmitter use pattern 1310,T_(duty_cycle_period)=10 ms, while in the lower illustrated transmitteruse pattern 1320, T_(duty_cycle_period)=50 ms.

The lower illustrated configuration 1320 may include a longer contiguoustransmitter ON period, which may not be suitable for mitigating peakpower constraints, as continuous transmission for an elongated periodmay potentially trigger a battery voltage brown-out condition due tohigh battery current drain. Thus, the upper illustrated configuration1310 may be more suitable than the lower illustrated configuration 1320for mitigating peak power constraints. Note that the lower illustratedconfiguration 1320 may be sufficient (and possibly even more beneficial,due to the potentially longer contiguous TX OFF period) to mitigatethermal constraints (e.g., in which a longer time constant isapplicable), at least in some instances.

In the following further exemplary embodiments are provided.

One set of embodiments may include a method for a wireless device,comprising: establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection witha cellular base station according to a first radio access technology(RAT); transmitting an indication of one or more of a preferredbandwidth part or a preferred communication duty cycle for the RRCconnection to the cellular base station; and receiving an indication ofone or more of a bandwidth part or a communication duty cycle selectedfor the RRC connection from the cellular base station.

Another set of embodiments may include a method for a cellular basestation, comprising: establishing a radio resource control (RRC)connection with a wireless device according to a first radio accesstechnology (RAT); receiving an indication of one or more of a preferredbandwidth part or a preferred communication duty cycle for the RRCconnection from the wireless device; selecting one or more of abandwidth part or a communication duty cycle for the RRC connectionbased at least in part on the indication of one or more of a preferredbandwidth part or a preferred communication duty cycle; and transmittingan indication of the selected bandwidth part and/or communication dutycycle for the RRC connection to the wireless device.

According to some embodiments, the method further comprises: thewireless device transmitting an indication of a preferred communicationduty cycle period for the RRC connection to the cellular base station,wherein the indication of the preferred communication duty cycle periodis provided in conjunction with the indication of the preferredcommunication duty cycle; the cellular base station selecting acommunication duty cycle period for the RRC connection based at least inpart on the indication of the preferred communication duty cycle period;and the cellular base station transmitting an indication of the selectedcommunication duty cycle period to the wireless device.

According to some embodiments, an indication of a preferredcommunication duty cycle and a preferred communication duty cycle periodare provided by the wireless device for each of uplink and downlinkcommunication.

According to some embodiments, an indication of a preferredcommunication duty cycle and a preferred communication duty cycle periodare provided by the wireless device for each active component carrierconfigured for the wireless device by the cellular base station.

According to some embodiments, an indication of a preferred bandwidthpart is provided by the wireless device for each active componentcarrier configured for the wireless device by the cellular base station.

According to some embodiments, the method further comprises: thewireless device transmitting an indication of a preferred minimum timeperiod for a contiguous gap with no downlink or uplink scheduling duringeach communication duty cycle period.

According to some embodiments, the method further comprises: thecellular base station providing an indication of a set of possiblecommunication duty cycle values and a set of possible communication dutycycle period values, wherein the preferred communication duty cycle isselected by the wireless device from the set of possible communicationduty cycle values, wherein the preferred communication duty cycle periodis selected by the wireless device from the set of possiblecommunication duty cycle period values.

According to some embodiments, one or more of the preferred bandwidthpart, the preferred communication duty cycle, or the preferredcommunication duty cycle period are selected by the wireless devicebased at least in part on detecting that one or more of a thermalcondition or a peak power condition is occurring at the wireless device.

According to some embodiments, the method further comprises: thewireless device determining that the thermal condition or peak powercondition is no longer occurring at the wireless device; and thewireless device providing an indication of one or more of an updatedpreferred bandwidth part, an updated preferred communication duty cycle,or an updated preferred communication duty cycle period to the cellularbase station based at least in part on determining that the thermalcondition or peak power condition is no longer occurring at the wirelessdevice.

According to some embodiments, the selected bandwidth part,communication duty cycle, and/or communication duty cycle period areconfigured to expire after expiration of a timer associated with theselected bandwidth part, communication duty cycle, and/or communicationduty cycle period, wherein after expiration of the timer associated withthe selected bandwidth part, communication duty cycle, and/orcommunication duty cycle period, the wireless device and the cellularbase station communicate using a default bandwidth part, communicationduty cycle, and/or communication duty cycle period for the RRCconnection.

Another exemplary embodiment may include a device, comprising: anantenna; a radio coupled to the antenna; and a processing elementoperably coupled to the radio, wherein the device is configured toimplement any or all parts of the preceding examples.

A yet further exemplary embodiment may include a non-transitory computeraccessible memory medium comprising program instructions which, whenexecuted at a device, cause the device to implement any or all parts ofany of the preceding examples.

A still further exemplary embodiment may include a computer programcomprising instructions for performing any or all parts of any of thepreceding examples.

Yet another exemplary embodiment may include an apparatus comprisingmeans for performing any or all of the elements of any of the precedingexamples.

Still another exemplary embodiment may include an apparatus comprising aprocessing element configured to cause a wireless device to perform anyor all of the elements of any of the preceding examples.

It is well understood that the use of personally identifiableinformation should follow privacy policies and practices that aregenerally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmentalrequirements for maintaining the privacy of users. In particular,personally identifiable information data should be managed and handledso as to minimize risks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use,and the nature of authorized use should be clearly indicated to users.

Embodiments of the present invention may be realized in any of variousforms. For example, in some embodiments, the present invention may berealized as a computer-implemented method, a computer-readable memorymedium, or a computer system. In other embodiments, the presentinvention may be realized using one or more custom-designed hardwaredevices such as ASICs. In other embodiments, the present invention maybe realized using one or more programmable hardware elements such asFPGAs.

In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium(e.g., a non-transitory memory element) may be configured so that itstores program instructions and/or data, where the program instructions,if executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform amethod, e.g., any of a method embodiments described herein, or, anycombination of the method embodiments described herein, or, any subsetof any of the method embodiments described herein, or, any combinationof such subsets.

In some embodiments, a device (e.g., a UE) may be configured to includea processor (or a set of processors) and a memory medium (or memoryelement), where the memory medium stores program instructions, where theprocessor is configured to read and execute the program instructionsfrom the memory medium, where the program instructions are executable toimplement any of the various method embodiments described herein (or,any combination of the method embodiments described herein, or, anysubset of any of the method embodiments described herein, or, anycombination of such subsets). The device may be realized in any ofvarious forms.

Although the embodiments above have been described in considerabledetail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent tothose skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated.It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace allsuch variations and modifications.

1. A wireless device, comprising: an antenna; a radio coupled to theantenna; and a processing element coupled to the radio; wherein thewireless device is configured to: establish a radio resource control(RRC) connection with a cellular base station according to a first radioaccess technology (RAT); transmit an indication of one or more of apreferred bandwidth part configuration or a preferred communication dutycycle for the RRC connection to the cellular base station; and receivean indication of one or more of a bandwidth part configuration or acommunication duty cycle selected for the RRC connection from thecellular base station.
 2. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein thewireless device is further configured to: transmit an indication of apreferred communication duty cycle period for the RRC connection to thecellular base station, wherein the indication of the preferredcommunication duty cycle period is provided in conjunction with theindication of the preferred communication duty cycle; and receive anindication of a communication duty cycle period for the RRC connectionfrom the cellular base station.
 3. The wireless device of claim 2,wherein the wireless device is further configured to: transmit anindication of a preferred communication duty cycle and a preferredcommunication duty cycle period for each of uplink and downlinkcommunication with the cellular base station.
 4. The wireless device ofclaim 2, wherein the wireless device is further configured to: transmitan indication of a preferred communication duty cycle and a preferredcommunication duty cycle period for each active component carrierconfigured for the wireless device by the cellular base station.
 5. Thewireless device of claim 2, wherein the wireless device is furtherconfigured to: transmit an indication of a preferred minimum time periodfor a contiguous gap with no downlink or uplink scheduling during eachcommunication duty cycle period.
 6. The wireless device of claim 2,wherein the wireless device is further configured to: receive anindication of a set of possible communication duty cycle values and aset of possible communication duty cycle period values; select thepreferred communication duty cycle from the set of possiblecommunication duty cycle values; and select the preferred communicationduty cycle period from the set of possible communication duty cycleperiod values.
 7. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the wirelessdevice is further configured to: transmit an indication of a preferredbandwidth part configuration for each active component carrierconfigured for the wireless device by the cellular base station.
 8. Thewireless device of claim 1, wherein the wireless device is furtherconfigured to: determine that one or more of a thermal condition or apeak power condition is occurring at the wireless device, wherein one ormore of the preferred bandwidth part configuration or the preferredcommunication duty cycle are selected by the wireless device based atleast in part on determining that one or more of a thermal condition ora peak power condition is occurring at the wireless device.
 9. Thewireless device of claim 8, wherein the wireless device is furtherconfigured to, at a later time: determine that no thermal condition orpeak power condition is occurring at the wireless device; and transmitan indication of one or more of an updated preferred bandwidth partconfiguration or an updated preferred communication duty cycle to thecellular base station based at least in part on determining that nothermal condition or peak power condition is occurring at the wirelessdevice.
 10. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein one or more of thebandwidth part configuration or the communication duty cycle areconfigured to expire after expiration of a timer associated with one ormore of the bandwidth part or the communication duty cycle, whereinafter expiration of the timer, the processing element is furtherconfigured to cause the wireless device to communicate with the cellularbase station using one or more of a default bandwidth part configurationor a default communication duty cycle for the RRC connection.
 11. Acellular base station, comprising: an antenna; a radio coupled to theantenna; and a processing element coupled to the radio; wherein thecellular base station is configured to: establish a radio resourcecontrol (RRC) connection with a wireless device according to a firstradio access technology (RAT); receive a request for of one or more of aspecified bandwidth part configuration or a specified communication dutycycle for the RRC connection from the wireless device; select one ormore of a bandwidth part configuration or a communication duty cycle forthe RRC connection based at least in part on the request for one or moreof a specified bandwidth part configuration or a specified communicationduty cycle; and transmit an indication of the selected bandwidth partconfiguration and/or communication duty cycle for the RRC connection tothe wireless device.
 12. The cellular base station of claim 11, whereinthe cellular base station is further configured to: receive a requestfor a specified communication duty cycle period for the RRC connection,wherein the request for the specified communication duty cycle period isreceived in conjunction with the request for the specified communicationduty cycle; select a communication duty cycle period for the RRCconnection based at least in part on the request for the specifiedcommunication duty cycle period; and transmit an indication of theselected communication duty cycle period to the wireless device.
 13. Thecellular base station of claim 12, wherein the cellular base station isfurther configured to: receive a request for a specified communicationduty cycle and a specified communication duty cycle period from thewireless device for each of uplink and downlink communication with thewireless device.
 14. The cellular base station of claim 12, wherein thecellular base station is further configured to: receive a request for aspecified communication duty cycle and a specified communication dutycycle period from the wireless device for each active component carrierconfigured for the wireless device by the cellular base station.
 15. Thecellular base station of claim 11, wherein the cellular base station isfurther configured to: receive a request for a specified bandwidth partconfiguration from the wireless device for each active component carrierconfigured for the wireless device by the cellular base station.
 16. Anapparatus, comprising a processing element configured to cause acellular base station to: establish a radio resource control (RRC)connection with a wireless device according to a first radio accesstechnology (RAT); receive an indication of a preferred bandwidth partconfiguration, a preferred communication duty cycle, and a preferredcommunication duty cycle period for the RRC connection from the wirelessdevice; select a bandwidth part configuration, a communication dutycycle, and a communication duty cycle period for the RRC connectionbased at least in part on the indication of the preferred bandwidth partconfiguration, the preferred communication duty cycle, and the preferredcommunication duty cycle period; and transmit an indication of theselected bandwidth part configuration, communication duty cycle, andcommunication duty cycle period for the RRC connection to the wirelessdevice.
 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processing element isfurther configured to cause the cellular base station to: receive anindication of a preferred minimum time period for a contiguous gap withno downlink or uplink scheduling during each communication duty cycleperiod; and select uplink and downlink scheduling timing for thewireless device based at least in part on the indication of a preferredminimum time period for a contiguous gap with no downlink or uplinkscheduling during each communication duty cycle period.
 18. Theapparatus of claim 16, wherein the processing element is furtherconfigured to cause the cellular base station to: transmit an indicationof a set of possible communication duty cycle values and a set ofpossible communication duty cycle period values to the wireless device,wherein the preferred communication duty cycle is selected from the setof possible communication duty cycle values, wherein the preferredcommunication duty cycle period is selected from the set of possiblecommunication duty cycle period values.
 19. The apparatus of claim 16,wherein the selected bandwidth part configuration, communication dutycycle, and communication duty cycle period are configured to expireafter expiration of a timer associated with the selected bandwidth partconfiguration, communication duty cycle, and communication duty cycleperiod, wherein after expiration of the timer associated with theselected bandwidth part configuration, communication duty cycle, andcommunication duty cycle period, the processing element is furtherconfigured to cause the cellular base station to communicate with thewireless device using a default bandwidth part configuration,communication duty cycle, and communication duty cycle period for theRRC connection.
 20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the first RATcomprises fifth generation new radio (5G NR) cellular communication.